The Cryptic Curse
by ladyofathens
Summary: "There is darkness in your eyes, ice in your heart, and you hold secrets beyond what anyone should ever know" That is what the man said before kidnapping the Doctor, before leaving Clara trapped within the Doctors timeline...But just who is this man? and what does he want with the Doctor ? or better yet, what if it isn't the Doctor that he wants?...
1. A Bitter Quest

_Authors Note: For those of you who have read the original version of this story I would like to apologize for the sudden change, the original character that I had used previously in this story has been replaced by Clara. The setting had also changed, this revised version (the one you are reading now) is set after "The Name of The Doctor", but in this version the Doctor did not save Clara, he had been kidnapped before he could do so- by whom? Well you shall have to read the story to find out….._

CHAPTER ONE:

Eight months, two weeks, three days, twenty-two hours, thirty-three minutes and forty two seconds. That was what the timer on the TARDIS console read, a timer that the ship had set up automatically the day that he did not return, counting with precision as the seconds ticked on. Of course, still, no matter how many seconds were counted, not one guaranteed that he would actually return.

_No. Don't you dare think that. You will find him._

Clara Oswald quickly brushed such melancholic thoughts out of her mind and focused on the task at hand. Eight months. It had been eight months since she had last seen the Doctor, eight months since the TARDIS malfunctioned, setting the place ablaze with fire and sparks, eight months since the terror of that moment when she realized the Doctor was not coming back sunk in.

"_I'll be back soon,_ _"he'd said._

"_I just have a few errands to run, you know, loose ends to tie up" he'd flashed that same smile that he always seemed to flash at all the right moments before he turned and left the TARDIS, shutting the doors gently behind him._

It seems that she had forgotten the number one rule that must not be forgotten when travelling with the Doctor: the Doctor lies. And after that day, she will never forget it.

Her mind drifted for a few more moments, sifting through lost days as she tried desperately to find away out of the TARDIS, for the Doctor had taken the liberty of setting up the master lock on the TARDIS door as an extra precaution. Nevertheless she didn't stop trying, and though it took her a few days she finally did locate the TARDIS library and after forty-eight hours of searching without sleep she was lucky enough to find a very useful book, it was titled "How to fly a TARDIS, for dummies", written by a Lesley Crawford, God bless his sole (still, she couldn't help but wonder if the TARDIS had altered the title for her specifically..)

By now she had the book memorized; of course, thankfully though, it didn't take her long - roughly two weeks, actually. By day three and page two hundred and ninety-six she had managed to override the master lock by re-routing the main circuit board to respond _only_ to her voice. Of course, though, the Doctor wasn't going to make it easy. Some errands these were - apparently they were important enough for him to make TARDIS automatically eject herself into space. Clara had tried to trace the last coordinates, but they had been deleted the moment they were ejected.

By day five she had learned to fly the TARDIS though space and by day six through time, then by day one of week two (page five-hundred and sixty-eight) she had successfully landed (she might have done so sooner if the TARDIS hadn't been in such a foul mood ever since the Doctor had vanished)... of course, the fact that she landed by no means implied that it had been a gentle landing.

The moment she stepped out of the TARDIS though she knew that there was nothing to be found there, the planet was merely an endless expanse of dirt, and rock, completely void of any life from watch she could tell, the TARDIS's scan confirmed this so she set out to search for somewhere else to look.

Thirteen planets and two galaxies later she still had nothing to go on, she was beginning to feel a bit hopeless and overwhelmed at the prospect of literally having all of time and space to search through. That soon changed, though, when the TARDIS locked onto a low level microwave transmission from a near planet and create a link to its radio receiver, though they could not pick up much (which is to be expected considering there was a bit of a rough solar storm going on, that and the fact that the TARDIS's idea of near was approximately three light-years) but been the two of them they managed to catch the words "Doctor-lost-visit-Quer" .

The last word, when checking into the TARDIS database she find out was the name of a planet, but apparently in the time frame they were in it had burned nearly three million years ago.

Ant that was the last lead she had had, it had nearly been three months sense then and once again she was beginning to loose hope.

Clara snapped herself back into the present when she heard a loud ringing sound echo throughout the TARDIS, she recognized it quickly, it was the TARDIS warning signal.

She ran straight to the monitor and saw the words "Low power" staring her in the face, cussing under her breath she began to pace.

Logic. That was what she needed now, she must think logically. What is strong enough to power a TARDIS?

_For heaven's sake! Your in outer space, surely there must be something you can use to power the TARDIS!_

"That's it!" she said, a triumphant grin spreading across her face as she ran towards the monitor, she typed as quickly as she could (well as quickly as one could on a type-writers keyboard).

The nearest Supernova was approximately one light-year away, that wasn't very far for a TARDIS to travel, she quickly typed in the coordinates, using her foot to push down the lever as she did, the TARDIS jerked into motion, she hugged the side of the console and she cranked up the speed, faster and faster, the warning bell rang louder as they hit critical levels, both speed and power.

"Come on, come on, you can do it," she muttered on to her breath as she stared at the monitor, watching the power level lower at an alarming rate.

The lights in the TARDIS began to fade, by now circuits on the console were letting out loud crackling sounds as Clara ran around in a manic rage pressing levers and pushing buttons that in her current state couldn't quite be sure of their functions.

Finally with only two-percent power left to spare she linked onto the supernova, and within seconds the TARDIS was refueled, she set the coordinated to about three hundred miles away, once at a safe distance from the supernova she let out a sigh of relief, setting the TARDIS into "drift" mode she leaned back into her chair and closed her eyes.

It only been about thirty seconds when her eyes flew open and she leaped up from the chair, grabbing the side of the console for a few seconds until the dizziness subsided, she once again began to pace.

She had an idea. A dangerous idea. An incredibly dangerous idea that only a desperate fool would attempt.

"Well I guess this means I am a desperate fool," she muttered as she walked back over to the other side of the TARDIS.

At that moment the she heard the Doctors voice.

"You should not do that," he said

She turned towards him in disbelief "Doctor… " She said, her voice barely more than a whisper.

"I am not the Doctor. I am a voice interface"

Her expression quickly faded to one of irritation "Of course the TARDIS would pick him" she muttered impatiently

"I heard that"

"What do you want" Clara said ignoring the interface's comment

"I am here to tell you not to do that"

"Yes well, I don't particularly care at the moment. You and I both know that this is the only way that we can find the coordinates of where the doctor went"

"Nobody is meant to travel through their own timeline"

"This is the only way, I have to go back and get the coordinates before your processing system burns them "

"I cannot let you do that"

"You can't stop me"

"Yes, I can" at that moment the lights in the TARDIS faded, as well as the voice interface. The usual humming stopped and she was surrounded by silence.

Clara smirked "You actually thought that that would work?" she called out to the TARDIS

She raised her arms to reveal that she had been holding the exposed wires of the TARDIS's reserve energy feed, with a determined look in her eyes she brought them together with a spark, the light in the TARDIS immediately turned on, she ran towards the one an only dusty, unused section of the TARDIS console, the PTC, the Personal Timeline Coordinator, setting the coordinates she pulled the two levers, pressed the buttons in the sequence that she now new by heart the quickly turned the speed dial to maximum.

She was thrown back by the force of the TARDIS whizzing through time and space, the ship groaned in protest, the console sparked, she could smell smoke and see the shadows cast by a fire somewhere behind her.

The TARDIS stopped though; she felt it start to go backwards, it was reversing itself, trying to go back.

"No!" Clara ran up to the console, the TARDIS jerked nearly throwing her backwards but she managed to grab hold of the of a metal bare just in time, she saw the PTC lever switch back into place, the TARDIS apparently was not going to allow her to follow through with her plans.

Clara reached towards the navigator lever wildly, the TARDIS jerked once more, this time forward, she wad thrown across the console and onto the other side, the felt a lever switch underneath her foot as she did, glancing at the monitor, she saw plainly that the TARDIS was not going through her timeline anymore, but it was still heading straight towards the exact time and date of the Doctors disappearance, as the TARDIS continued to plummet forward the circuit board continued to spark, more fires began to erupt just as she collided into herself.

MEANWHILE:

The Doctor sat hunched over, the think impenetrable wire wrapped around his hands and legs continuously chafing against what was left of the skin in that area, sweat poured down his back, his stomach burned with hunger.

It had been weeks since he had last eaten, his joints hollowed out, he had progressed through malnutrition to the point were he couldn't even grow facial hair, the rest of his hair was coming out in tufts, he wondered how much longer they were going to keep him here.

He hears footsteps approaching, it must have been that same time of day; he lowered his head pretending to be asleep, knowing full well that he was not going to fall for it.

A tall man wearing a long coat, walked through the door, his face was hidden in the shadows, only his silhouette against the faint light of the door could be made out clearly as he approached the Doctor who sat in a crumpled head at the opposite end of the room.

"Come now, I thought we were done with these little games of yours…" his captor said pacing around him in circles, attempting to make the doctor nervous by standing in his blind spot.

"What do you want, Rook," The Doctor said raising his head with a sigh, his gaze icy.

"Oh I think you know what I want, Doctor"

"You know that I wont let you near her"

"Ah, but that really isn't up to you, is it?" The man named Rook pulled a knife out from his coat pocket, his turning it between his hands, the blade glinted off of some unknown source of light, its tip looking much too sharp for the Doctors liking.

"You see," The man said, turning around with a malicious grin on his face "You and I both know what's going to happen…. She's going to come and try to save her _precious little Doctor"_ He pressed the tip of the blade into the side of the Doctors cheek "And we all know what happens then…."

"No!" the Doctor said, leaping forwards while ignoring the pain in his cheek as the blade slid across it "You will not hurt her"

"Who said I wanted to hurt her?" Rook snapped his fingers and two men, one holding a knife, the other a whip, emerged from the shadows "she is caught in the crossfires once again, Doctor, and you can't save her this time…"

The man turned away and walked towards the door, leaving the two men grinning menacingly behind him as the walked slowly towards the Doctor. One the man had gone the only sounds that could be heart from the room were the agonizing cries of the Doctor and the sadistic laughter that followed them…

_Authors Note: please review the story, I would very much like to hear your ideas, thoughts, or any suggestions of what you would like to see in the story, and- to those who read the original version-whether or not you like the changes that I have made. Thank you for taking the time to read my story._


	2. A Strange Visitation

_Authors Note: I apologize for not writing for so long- I decided to release a teaser for the time being. Please review it and let me know what you think of it._

_Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who._

CHAPTER TWO:

Clara lifted her aching head up off of the TARDIS floor; clumsily she managed to pry herself up into a sitting position. The TARDIS warning bell sounded out loudly throughout the room, a sudden wave or Déjà vu hit her; she shook it off quickly and focused on the present.

"Something isn't right…." She mumbled softly; why wasn't the TARDIS moving? Why was it so quiet (aside from the warning bell)?

She stood up slowly, taking in the atmosphere around here, the lights were turned down, with only the emergency lights illuminating the room; it casted eerie shadows across the console.

Stepping closer she saw that the console was covered with dust and cobwebs- it looked as if it has not been touched in years.

Quite suddenly she felt a tingling sensation on her right arm, looking down she saw a large greenish colored spider with bright glowing red eyes crawling down her arm, startled, she jumped slightly and brushed it quickly off of her arm, it fell onto the floor and quickly scurried away.

She started to move away from the console when the sound of static startled her. Turning around she saw a hologram of the Doctor come into focus.

"Must we go through this again?" she mumbled, irritated at the TARDIS- this was definitely not the time for her to be chastising Clara.

"Clara," the Doctor said, "you have to listed to me closely"

This was not the voice of an interface, it was much too tender, less calculated, and most of all, much more frightened.

"Now that this hologram has been activated, you have obviously attempted to go back in time and find the coordinates"

There was no hint of a smile on his face, no suggestion of him trying to cover his fear as he usually did, no, this time he was frightened. And that frightened Clara more than anything else.

"You-" The voice was cut off, static filling in.

"What? No! Keep going" Clara said desperately; as if her desperation would somehow help clear the static.

"Remember- the words-" The static was getting worse, but a few repeated words became clear "The words. Don't- look- away-" The hologram became broken, the control filled with loudness of the static "Whatever you do, don't come and find me" his last sentence rang clear, it was the last this she heard before the image broke and the room went silent.


	3. The Precarious Brink

CHAPTER THREE:

Clara lifted her aching head up off of the TARDIS floor; clumsily she managed to pry herself up into a sitting position. The TARDIS warning bell sounded out loudly throughout the room, a sudden wave or Déjà vu hit her; she shook it off quickly and focused on the present.

"Something isn't right…." She mumbled softly; why wasn't the TARDIS moving? Why was it so quiet (aside from the warning bell)?

She stood up slowly, taking in the atmosphere around here, the lights were turned down, with only the emergency lights illuminating the room; it casted eerie shadows across the console.

Stepping closer she saw that the console was covered with dust and cobwebs- it looked as if it has not been touched in years.

Quite suddenly she felt a tingling sensation on her right arm, looking down she saw a large greenish colored spider with bright glowing red eyes crawling down her arm, startled, she jumped slightly and brushed it quickly off of her arm, it fell onto the floor and quickly scurried away.

She started to move away from the console when the sound of static startled her. Turning around she saw a hologram of the Doctor come into focus.

"Must we go through this again?" she mumbled, irritated at the TARDIS- this was definitely not the time for her to be chastising Clara.

"Clara," the Doctor said, "you have to listed to me closely"

This was not the voice of an interface, it was much too tender, less calculated, and most of all, much too frightened.

"Now that this hologram has been activated, you have obviously attempted to go back in time and find the coordinates"

There was no hint of a smile on his face, no suggestion of him trying to cover his fear as he usually did, no, this time he was frightened. And that frightened Clara more than anything else.

"You-" The voice was cut off, static filling in.

"What? No! Keep going" Clara said desperately; as if her desperation would somehow help clear the static.

"Remember- the words-" The static was getting worse, but a few repeated words became clear "The words. Don't- look- away-" The hologram became broken, the control filled with loudness of the static "Whatever you do, don't come and find me" his last sentence rang clear, it was the last this she heard before the image broke and the room went silent.

THE DOCTOR:

A blood-curdling screech echoed across the cold, damp, dismal concrete walls of his confinement. He could hardly tell that it was his own; actually, he could barely comprehend anything, for the pain was making the world warp into a haze of blood and blades. He sat limp against the back of the chair where he was tied; trying hard to shake of the feeling of nausea that had settled in his stomach.

"Why don't you just kill me?" the doctor chocked out, blood dripping down his chin.

Rook chuckled loudly, taunting him "Come now! You know that would only ruin the fun"

One of the bulky men- the Doctor's most enthusiastic tormentor- raised the whip high in the air and was about to bring it down once again on the red, swollen, crisscrossed area of skin that had once been the Doctor's back but Rook raised a hand to stop him; with reluctance the man lowered the whip and let out an indignant grunt as he took a step back.

"Besides, that would make it much to easy for you to come back, and as much as I- and my colleagues here- would love to do all of this to you once again, I am afraid that would take too much time, and would be much too big a risk."

"Fine, kill me twice and get it over with." The Doctor said grimly, staring at the floor, trying not to think the unnerving quantity of blood that lay at his feet.

"What's the matter?" Rook pouted his lips mockingly "Is our Doctor feeling a little depressed?"

The Doctor remained silent, anger pulsing from his eyes as he stared at Rook's sick, sadistic smile; the shadow that covered half of his face caused his expression to appear even more menacing.

"I though you were stronger than that Doctor; what with how protective you are with that little Clara of yours, I'm sure if I had her near me I would take _very_ good care of her and-"

The Doctor cut him off "You will not touch her." His eyes narrowed as he spoke.

"Ah, but Doctor! You seem to have misunderstood me; I by no means meant to give the impression that you had a choice in the matter- I would never give you such an opportunity" Rook stopped pacing in front of him, his hands behind his back, his back was perfectly straight, giving him much to innocent and gentlemanly of an outside image

"You know that I did what I did because I had no choice" The Doctor lowered his gaze to the ground again.

"We all have choices" Rook stepped closer, bringing his face right up to the Doctor's "And you made the wrong one" The sick smile appeared on his face again; except this time his teeth were showing in an almost animalistic manner "So guess what? You made me suffer, so now it's your turn"

And with that he turned, his cloak spinning as he stormed out of the room. He raised his right hand waving is absently behind him saying "You can have your fun now boys"

Once again the inhuman screeching reflected across the concrete; directly followed by the sadistic laughter of the two of them as they relished in the warm and sticky sensation of the doctor's blood as it splashed across their skin.

CLARA:

Clara paced back and forth, her hands raised with her fingers pressing together against her lips.

_Think, Clara, think… What would the Doctor do? No. He isn't here, you are though, not that you are accomplishing much…._

Clara mumbled, chastising herself. It had been two hours since she had received the Doctor's hologram and she had yet to come up with something she could do, and just sitting there waiting was driving her mad- there _was_ something she could do to help him. She wasn't sure what yet, but she knew that there _had _to be something….

Clara stopped mid-step. Laughter. She could hear laughter coming from somewhere down the corridor.

She turned to her left and approached the corridor hesitantly, as she got closer she could see a light projecting from underneath the doors, turning towards the nearest one she took a deep breath as she pressed her palm against the cool metal of the doorknob and turned it slowly, unsure of what she was going to find next.

She was taken aback from what she saw. It was not a monster, not the horrible bloody scene of a dead body; nothing along any of the lines she expected- instead, she saw herself.

Curious, she tried to take a step closer but was brought to a halt when she felt herself walking into what felt like a brick wall. Rubbing her forehead she took a step back and raised her hand to the area where she had thought she felt the brick wall; her finger came in contact with something cold and hard in the doorway, it rippled much like a body of water would if you threw a peddle into it, Clara quickly retracted her hand and took another step back.

Clara then turned her attention back to the scene that was being played out; by now the Doctor had appeared and was standing very close to her, which might not have been very shocking if he had not proceeded to wrap his arms around her waist and press his forehead to hers before taking her face in his hands and kissing her deeply, pressing her body into the console, his hands were beginning to wander….

She watched as her own hands trailed up his neck and tangled in his hair, it was hard not to turn away but something made her feel as though it was wrong not to, she probably would have continued to stare if the door hadn't abruptly slammed shut causing her to stumble back by the sudden exertion of wind.

Behind her she heard another door swing open, she whirled around quickly and was once again faced with another image, but this time an entirely new situation was being played out.

This time Clara was shocked to see herself holding a gun to the head of the Doctor, eyes burning with fury, her lips mouthing out words that Clara was unable to hear; they stood in some abandoned area, void of any other form of life, surrounded by stacks of wooden crated with labels faded past any sense of legibility; but there was one particular thing that she had been able to hear: the sound of the bullet as it was fired right as the door slammed shut.

The adjacent door was the next to open. Inside she did not see herself, rather she saw the image of the Doctor sitting sullenly in one of the chairs located in the medical room; she him lift a begin drinking some sort of purple liquid out of a what appeared to be a test tube, within the next few seconds she watched as the Doctor's muscles contracted and retracted in a seizure-like movement as he slipped out of his chair and onto the floor, she couldn't help but run towards the transparent wall between them and scream the word "No!", the scene had been disconcertingly realistic.

She was thrown onto the floor as this door closed in a much more violent manner then any of the others had (most likely because she had been in the way). She heard another door open, this one behind her; she could see flickering shadows on the door in front of her; she rose to her full height and hesitantly turned around.

Clara let out a gasp as she watched herself running through a horrific maze of fire, the flames cast eerie shadows against the walls of whatever place she actually was, but the most shocking part of all came when the vision of herself walked right through a bright blaze of flames coming out with not so much as a scratch, she could have sworn that she had even scene herself shiver.

The door closed quite suddenly, knocking her off her feet once again. She reached back and placed her hands on the floor to use as leverage when she felt her fingers come upon something sticky and warm, she brought her fingers into her line of vision and examined the dark substance that coated them, raising it to her nose she realized that it smelled metallic; much like the way blood did.

A sudden scratching sound filled the corridor causing Clara's head to shoot upward. Her eyes grew wide with horror as she saw lines of blood being carved into the wall, it became apparent quite soon that as the puddles of blood continued to pool onto the floor a word was slowly being formed in a horrible scratched handwriting on the wall.

"CHOOSE," she mumbled reading the word written on the wall.

A hologram of herself appeared before her; obviously the work of the TARDIS (Funny how even in such dark times the TARDIS managed to find someway of taunting Clara) "Choose wisely" it said, "There a no second chances."


	4. A Bloody Trickery

_Authors note: Please let me know what you think of this chapter- I apologize for not having updated sooner (Things have been quite busy for me). Remember: The more reviews , the sooner I update._

CHAPTER FOUR:

Clara stood in the middle of the corridor examining her situation carefully; glancing between the four doors as if hoping one would miraculously show a giant banner with the words "CHOOSE ME" written on it.

She heard something rolling on the floor before she felt it come into contact with the side of her left shoe, reaching down the picked up what a appeared to be watch, within the dim light she could see a date and time.

The exact date and time that the Doctor disappeared.

Looking up she began to realize the importance of this choice; whichever one she chose would decide her fate.

_"The words. Don't-Look-Away" _The Doctor's voice resonated in her mind.

Apparently it was not only her fate that was at stake here.

She glanced once at the door that she saw herself holding a gun to the Doctors temple, a sickness settled in her stomach at the very thought of herself- even if it had only been a vision- killing the Doctor. Obviously that was an easy choice; there was absolutely no way in hell that she was about to shoot the Doctor.

Her gaze turned to the first door she had peered into, the one with herself and the Doctor entangled in each other's arms; she found the idea of their kissing rather appealing and for some strange reason it seemed oddly familiar- as if she had kissed the Doctor before, but no, she couldn't have-She would have _definitely _remembered something like that.

Letting out a sigh she turned towards the one in which she had seen the Doctor swallow the vile of purple fluid, nauseatingly, she could see a small amount of white foam from underneath the door, that must have been where the Doctor had fallen and began foaming at the mouth. As much as she did wish she could save the Doctor from such a horrible death something told her the situation did not fit with the day that the Doctor had left, but what if that had been what the Doctor had gone to do? Did the Doctor truly want to die? No. That was not the Doctor she knew, the Doctor she knew wanted adventure, and what assurance of adventure is one supposed to feel when considering the prospect of death? That is, if there is any actual possibility of adventure, which Clara truthfully could not say that she agreed with- besides, she already had one Doctor that she needed to save.

Reluctantly she turned towards the door with the flickering light illuminating from beneath it; the light from the flames she had seen herself running through (or chasing, then again _being _chased seemed much more plausible)…She was not sure how it fit but something told her that it had to; after all, what else could possibly be the right answer?

Taking a deep breath she walked forward and pressed her hand against the metal of the doorknob, only to quickly recoil at the degree of heat that it projected. Looking down at her palm she saw that it was a bright shade of red.

Deciding that is was probably the safer idea; she lowered her sleeve she quickly used it at a barrier between her hand and the knob as she turned it and kicked the door open the rest of the way.

She closed her eyes and walked forward, fully expecting the excruciating sensation of her flesh being burned off but was surprised by a feeling of cool feathers brushing against her skin. Upon opening her eyes she saw that the "cool feathers" were actually the flickering flames.

Turning her attention back to her surroundings she saw that the door had disappeared which meant that there was no way out.

_Lovely. _She thought

She found herself yet again in another corridor, though she was relieved to find that it was one of the TARDIS's corridors; but now she had to face the next obstacle: finding the TARDIS control room.

She felt a shiver run through her partly though anticipation and partly from the increasing coldness that she was beginning to feel from the flames (which in its self was quite the unnerving sensation). She ran her hands up and down her arms as she tried to warm herself; her hand stopped at her wrist where she found the watch from earlier was wrapped around (she was unsure how it had managed to come to be in that particular position though….). In the light from the fire she saw that the hands were moving, which was a good sign (as the hands had been unmoving previously), but she did not have much time left.

Dropping her arms down to her sides she looked around, above one of the door frame heading in front of her she saw a blinking red light.

"Red usually means that it is dangerous…" A smile appeared on her face as the words came out of her mouth.

With her chin up she began running, running as fast as she could. Thankfully it was only after three wrong turns (and one collapsing ceiling…After all, the light had to have meant something…) that she found herself in the Control room.

The TARDIS abruptly jerked, sending Clara flying into the metal railing; she was momentarily confused when she remembered, this was the shock she had felt when the TARDIS took off, ejecting itself into space, and from what she had learned from the blessed "How to fly a TARDIS for dummies" she knew that it took exactly twenty seconds for the TARDIS mainframe to delete coordinates. And apparently now she was inside the past timeframe.

She hurled herself at the console, and crawled beneath it hoping not to be seen by her other self, but the earlier Clara was still standing by the door, hanging onto the handles for dear life as the TARDIS shook violently, swinging her lithe form in all directions.

She finally reached the typewriter keyboard of the computer, from her calculations she had exactly eight seconds left.

7

She entered the password (SonicCustard)

6

She was in the control center

5

Surpassing firewalls

4

Inside the deletion center

3

Searching for the coordinate

2

Coordinate found. Now at the deletion progress center

1

Coordinate deletion canceled.

0

Coordinates saved to mainframe.

Clara let a deep sigh of relief, blowing her fringe upward revealing her sweaty forehead., she leaned back against the console for a few more seconds before a thought occurred to her: what was she supposed to do now?

She knew that she had to hide, she could not let her other self see her, and she knew that by now as the TARDIS began to stabilize she would have been trying to use what little knowledge of the TARDIS she had then to find the coordinates.

She crawled beneath a nearby fallen heap of railing just before her old self approached the console, glancing behind her she was relieved to see the a the door she had entered through. Still crawling on the floor, she dragged herself inside, the door slamming it behind her.

She rolled over onto her back for a moment, allowing her breathing and heart rate to return to normal. She stood up then and had been about to make her way in the direction of the control room when something brushed past her, she glanced to her right but saw nothing. She took another step and this time felt a wind that blew her hair into her face come from her left, she glanced to that side; once again, nothing.

It was when she glanced in front of her that she saw the source of her unease: before her stood herself, throwing herself against the doorway that shown the Doctor poisoning herself.

_No. _Clara thought. _This cannot be happening again._

By now the other Clara was staring into the flames, she walked closer but was abruptly thrown backwards when the door slammed shut.

She saw herself stand up and look around, then go and try to open a completely separate door.

_What? No, this isn't what happened._

She scene abruptly changed once more, but it was not different, it was starting from the beginning, when the first door opened, it was as if someone had rewound the events.

It took Clara a moment to catch on. It was _her. _She was the one who wrote on the wall, she was the source of the blood, it was all _her!_

She looked around; she had to find something sharp, looking ahead she knew where she could find it: the control room; there had to be something there; after all, the TARDIS had just collided into itself.

She ran down the corridor as fast as she could, finally, out of breath she found herself by the control room, looking around frantically she found a shard of wayward metal form some unknown source that seemed would do the job, turning, she ran back down the corridor.

_Good. _She thought with a sick humor as she felt her breathing become labored. _The faster the heart-rate the more blood._

Once she reached midway down the corridor she stopped took a deep breath; closing her eyes she directed the piece of metal about her left wrist and dug it deep into her skin, she held back a scream as she dragged it back and forth, digging deeper and deeper into her own flesh.

At her feet she saw a puddle of blood form, she was careful to make sure it was in the exact spot she had fallen down upon earlier

She heard another door close and took it as her queue to start writing on the wall, dipping her finger into her wrist trying desperately to pretend that she had merely spilled red paint, she bit back another scream and began painting the letters on the wall, using her nails to create the same scratching sound that had originally gotten her attention.

By the time she had gotten the letter "S" she was feeling light headed but needed more blood, taking the piece of metal she dragged it deeper into her skin, this time she could not help but let out a whimper.

She must have hit the radial or ulnar artery because her wrist began bleeding much faster the blood turning to a much brighter shade of red, the last thing she could remember before she collapsed was carving the letter "E" into the wall and the watch rolling onto the floor as her legs gave way and her hand slid down the wall leaving a bloody handprint in its wake.


End file.
